British International Aid and Development NGOs and International Human Rights since 1945

This paper will examine the work of, and underlying principles behind, a number of British international aid and development organisations since 1945: principally, Oxfam, Christian Aid, Catholic Agency For Overseas Aid and Development (CAFOD) and War on Want. It will explore the religious foundations of these organisations (Christian Aid was connected to the Anglican church, while War on Want and Oxfam have Quaker roots) during and immediately after the Second World War, and how these humanitarian impulses gave way to the principles of international development programmes. NGOs were widely praised for the alternative model of development (i.e., grassroots connections) they supposedly offered in the 1960s and 1970s and they have been rightly seen as important contributors to global civil society. Yet they also borrowed heavily from the agendas set by intergovernmental agencies. In doing so, international aid and development NGOs have increasingly tied their work in with human rights principles, especially in regard to women’s rights and the right to basic needs of people living in impoverished countries. The unique contribution NGOs have been said to have made, and their promotion of international development initiatives stemming from elsewhere, lies at the heart of the paradox of NGOs. They have been both the independent critics of official development and yet also the transmitters of official aid programmes and principles. Rights are key to understanding this paradox. By adopting a rights-based approach to development, NGOs have been able to obtain important concessions for their clients, yet in doing so they also tied themselves in to wider liberal, market-based principles which many have contended have only served to perpetuate the conditions which promote poverty in the first place. This paper will explore the centrality of rights-based models to international aid and development NGOs and the opportunities and restrictions such an approach created.